At least this year’s State of the City won’t be 7 1/2 hours long

Mark your calendars: Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced the time, date and location of his annual State of the City address. It’ll be 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Asian Art Museum.

It’s a marked return to normalcy after last year’s 7 1/2 hour speech - yes, 7 1/2 hours – on YouTube. (By the end of that speech, Newsom appeared to have grown a slight moustache.)

Why is he going the traditional route this year?

“I try things differently every year – every single year,” Newsom told us.

He gave a few more details in his weekly YouTube address, joking that he knows “how excited everyone is” for the speech.

“I have a lot of good news and a lot of sobering news,” he said. “It may be a little longer than the governor’s 27-minute State of the State (address), but I like working without notes. Sometimes I go on and on.”

Newsom wouldn’t divulge any of the content of the speech, but his new spokesman, Tony Winnicker, said it would focus heavily on jobs and the economy – but not on the city’s budget.